Operators Want FG to Subject Oil and Gas Dividends to Withholding Tax

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry have urged the federal government to subject the dividends earned in the oil and gas sector by international oil companies (IOCs) to withholding tax, stressing that Nigeria is the only oil-producing country where dividends in the oil and gas sector are not subjected to withholding tax. Speaking to THISDAY on the recent revelation by the Nigerian exploration and production (E & P) companies that the country lost an estimated $6 billion in the asset sales by the IOCs, some of the stakeholders also want the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to set up a technical team with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) as a member to review the divestments of assets by the IOCs. They argued that the IOCs paid little amount as signature bonuses for the oil blocks in the 1950s and 1960s and raked in billions of dollars from the sale of the assets at the expense of the federal government.